Kirstie's Travel Diaries #18 : Tram Riding & Fisherman's Wharf

Catch up with #17 here.

Day 18 (17/03/12)

Our last day in San Fran before we headed off on our travels again! Today the sun was actually shining - woohoo, we had hardly seen it since landed here so we were so excited to get out of the hotel and enjoy our last day!

(Not sure why the flags say 2013... because it was 2012!) Something we still hadn't yet done was ride the famous trams so it was on the top of our list of things to do!

Once again we had missed breakfast in the hotel so we got ready and left and joined the queue down the hill for the Powell & Market tram!

The queue was definitely longer than we were expecting - we hadn't really noticed it before... maybe it was because of the weather though - everyone had the same idea as us!

We probably queued for half an hour or so, maybe longer, but it didn't seem that long - I can't remember where we got our tickets weather it was before or once we had boarded the tram but I think it was about $6 or so for a return to Fisherman's Wharf and back!

We luckily got seat on the way there - being a first timer I didn't fancy standing, especially when this thing came so close to other traffic - people were literally high-fiving bus drivers! 

It was so nice to get out of the main square and explore a bit more of the city! 

There were so many things to see whilst on the tram journey down the Fisherman's Wharf and you can seriously see how steep the hills are too - no wonder the queues were so big for this thing!

San Francisco is so beautiful - it's one of the places I want to re-visit most!

 I can't really remember how long it took down to Fisherman's Wharf but it can't have been longer than 30/40 mins! Once there (it was the end of the line) we hopped off and had a little walk around!

There was a Starbucks just by the tram line so we went in there and got a drink and had a sit down! Whilst in there we checked-in for our flight the next day - because we had booked things separately we wanted to make sure we'd be sat together on the flights. (even if it was only an hour and a bit!)

After a little while we decided to head back on the tram - we weren't sure how often they came so and we knew we had to pack so we went and waited for one to take us home!

This time it was busy again and we actually had to stand up and hold on - which thankfully I wasn't as scared about now!

We were stood next to a lovely couple who we ended up chatting to most of the way back! I can't quite remember where they were from ... possibly England now I think about it and they had just been on a cruise and were telling us all about their adventure and we did the same about ours! They were lovely and really helpful as they popped our bags between their feet so we didn't have to hold them and still had a free hand to snap some photos!

Back at Powell & Market we had a couple of hours to spare so we thought - let's go to the cinema again! Haha, we are the coolest right?

This time we decided to see The Lorax - something we both had really wanted to see after "meeting" him at Universal Studios Hollywood. I am such a HUGE Dr. Seuss fan so couldn't wait to see it!

Slight problem after purchasing the tickets though.... we went to get some popcorn and my friend suddenly realised - she's lost her bank card. After going through her bag 3457 times it was official - her card was lost/had been taken. HELP. 

Queue calling England and our parents to help us out! We are 8 hours behind remember so that was a bit of a pain! Thankfully after just a few phone calls home we had sorted it - the card was cancelled and a new one would be sent out to Florida for when we arrived there in a week's time.

Panic over - slightly... my friend was now cardless!

After the drama we had luckily only missed about 10 minutes of movie so sat down and enjoyed the rest of it! ( Bloomin' brilliant movie that I could watch over and over again! )

After the movie we made our way back to the hotel and started packing up our life's once again because tomorrow ..... we were off to Sin City.

NEXT TIME - We fly to Las Vegas!

Bloglovin | GFC | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Tumblr

Kirstie's Travel Diaries #10 - Venice Beach, Santa Monica & YouTubers

Catch up with #9 here.

DAY 10 (09/03/12)

Friday morning , the sun was shining and today we had decided to finally head down to the BEACH! Venice Beach to be precise and not forgetting Santa Monica!
We thought we'd ask at our hotel desk for the best way in getting to the beach, with traffic in LA being crazy busy we decided taxi probably wasn't the best idea as if we got stuck in traffic we could be paying hundreds of dollars! After speaking to them we headed off to the bus stop on Hollywood and Highland where we were to get on a bus and head to a bus station to change.

This bus came and we got on, a little nervous as to be fair we had no idea where we were going and knew no-one.
After what seemed a lifetime of stopping at a million stops on the same never-ending road we ended up at a bus depot type thing (aka we had no idea where we were). We actually got off at the wrong stop and had to walk  little bit to get there - we weren't having much luck at this moment.

Luckily a friendly bus driver advised us on where to go, so onto another bus it was and on the home straight to Venice Beach. Again, this wasn't a short journey but finally after over an hour and a half we were there - Venice Beach!

Obviously I'd seen Venice Beach so many times before, TV, Films, YouTube so this made it all the more exciting - recognising so many views and "sets"! 90210 sprung to mind!

One thing me and my friend had been dying to do was put our feet in the Pacific Ocean. I think it comes from us watching the movie Crossroads so many times and Mimi in it saying "I wanna travel all the way to California and dip my feet in the Pacific Ocean..." - have you guys seen that movie? I hope so - it's a childhood favourite of mine, got to love a bit of Britney!
So we did it, headed straight onto the beach and straight to the sea - now there was noway I was going in for a swim because.... erm... Sharks! So feet was enough! 

We walked alotng the beach for a little while and then decided to head back onto the walkway to check out everything there!
Venice Beach is a busy place and there is so much going on, stools, musicans, shops, cafes - the place is buzzing and we loved it!
There was so much to look at and even though I've heard people I know say before that it is a bit "dodgey" I didn't feel uncomfortable or on edge at all, I was loving it!
Walking along we suddenly noticed something we had definitely seen on TV - one of the model's homes from American's Next Top Model!!! (I can't remember what cycle it was - but I loved the season where they lived here - it is the most beautiful home with the most insane view!)

We could see the Santa Monica pier so thought we would walk along to there, taking in the beautiful views as we went!
We'd been walking for a while so we stopped and got a drink, it was probably the hottest day for us since arriving in the US... it wasn't even that hot and my poor pale skin wasn't coping well.
We set off again, getting closer to the pier - we could see the Ferris wheel and couldn't wait to hop on!
Whilst walking towards it all I suddenly noticed a camera crew - cameras, mics etc and then I suddenly saw who they were all pointed towards.... CarlieStylez and HeyKayli from YouTube!
If you haven't heard of them... where have you been? I have been watching the Shaytards probably for around 3 or 4 years now and with them being sister and sister-in-law to the family I have been subscribed to their channels ever since they started and of course to The Moms View.

I knew exactly what they were doing down in Santa Monica - filming Moms On The Loose!
I begged my friend to wait with me until they had stopped filming so I could go and speak to them and get a picture  call me sad/crazy but I knew there was noway this opportunity would ever come again!
I think we probably looked like weirdos sat down on the beach wall about 10m away waiting for them to finish interviewing  group of guys and at one point I thought we should probably just leave but after little while they finished up and the guys left.
So, like a crazy fan girl I went over and asked if I could have a photo with them - yes I'm that girl. #awkward
Thankfully they were so so lovely and happily had a couple of photos with us, not only this but they asked us to be on The Moms View.

 This terrified me but of course we said yes! We were filmed answering a few questions - which I totally ballsed up and sounded like a complete fool and I still cringe to this very day about it but.... oh well! 
It was so amazing meeting them both (although they did think I was about 16... god damn my young baby face!) as their family to me are such amazing role models and I can honestly say they were so lovely and I even still get to speak to Carlie on twitter now and again which, to me, is just crazy -she is such a sweetheart. 

After that seriously exciting moment we carried on up to the pier, passing the famous rings (that I always see in the Shaytards videos) and more!
Finally we were there - Santa Monica pier.

 A few years ago I would have never imagined I would have been this far from home, having the time of my life and seeing sights I never even dreamed I'd be able to see.

 We got some lunch (chips) and chilled for a bit - we had walked a fairly long way in the heat! Then it was time for the Ferris wheel! All we kept thinking was.... this is where Spencer propsed to Heidi in The Hills haha!
I swear to god that wheel went round about 500 times but definitely gave us enough time to get lots of lovely photos of the view! Why don't I live here?

Time was getting on and we knew that, with traffic, we were a good hour way from our hotel we thought that going back to the bus was the best plan.
Now.... where the bus stop was - we had no idea! There was noway we were walking back along to Venice Beach where we had come from so we went to the little help/police desk thing at the pier!
The officer kindly looked into all the bus times for us - which was like writing down chinese to us - we had no idea where we were going, or even which way!
 We actually stood on the wrong side of the road for about 30 minutes until we realised the bus we needed was across the other side - blonde moment.
We then had to run for our bus when we saw it - highly embarrassing  We were finally on a bus (and luckily had a seat) and it was packed.
It took us over 2 hours and 2 buses to get back to Hollywood and by this time I never wanted to see a bus again!
We had a quick dinner and took some photos up on Hollywood Boulevard and went bck to the hotel for an early night - what a day!

NEXT POST - LA Ink, Pinkberry & watching David Beckham!!

Kirstie's Travel Diaries #8 - The Hollywood Hills 2

Catch up with #7 here.

DAY 8 (07/03/12) - this day has been split into 2 posts this is Part 2.

Well I'm guessing if you have read this then you have previously read part 1 .... and if not then the link is at the top! 

I left the last post half way through our Wednesday afternoon and halfway through our exciting Hollywood Hills open top tour!
WARNING : This post is going to be very photo heavy.

After looking at some of the most incredible houses I've ever seen and hearing so much information and so many crazy stories we headed into the town and the iconic Rodeo Drive.
This is something I had seriously been looking forward too, somewhere you see so much on TV and in films you really want to know what it's like in real life! Is everyone walking round in heels with their amazing flowing hair and miniature pooch?

The first place we saw was Badgley Mischka which  is so super famous after it's scene in Pretty Woman (you know when they refuse to serve her?!) which I'm sure you all remember! Driving down Rodeo Drive was so insane because I recognised so so many places I'd seen on TV... especially on The Hills!

We saw our first cheesecake factory of the trip here (but we actually didn't even venture into one until we hit San Fran - obviously I shall be writing about that in the not so distant future!) and this is actually the FIRST ever Cheesecake Factory an opened in 1978! 
Seriously even from the outside this place looks amazing, I am a sucker for anything sweet so this is just amazing for me! Loveeeeee the cake!

 After going round Rodeo Drive we headed back to Hollywood Boulevard... via Sunset! We saw so many cool sights and so many famous places and landmarks! 
Honestly if you go to Hollywood  and you fancy having a classic tour I really recommend the Starline tours. The guide we had was just amazing, the amount of information he knew about simply everything was just fascinating. You could really tell he was passionate about his job and put his all into it - Thank you Andrew!
Check out some of the sights below, I won't bore you with the details to every single photo!

 Back on Hollywood Blvd and we popped into Starbucks for a well earned cup of tea and then went next door into Hollywood's Madame Tussuads! (I can't remember if I had mentioned before but with our tickets for the tour we also got free ticket to the Madame Tussauds which was super cool!)

Of course we had cameras out and were ready to pose with all our favourites! Some of them were amazing ... some.... not so much *cough* Zac Efron looked like a chipmunk*cough*!
Here are some of my favs!

After larking around for ages with all the waxworks we walked the 2 minutes back to our hotel before getting ready for dinner! We knew exactly where we wanted to go tonight and again it was only a 2 minute walk on Hollywood Blvd - Hooters!

We knew we wanted to have an earlyish night (and we also didnt want to be hanging out on the dodgy streets too late) so we thought Hooters was the perfect plan!
We headed down early evening and were seated by our waitress - Wendy (who was obviously tiny, gorgeous and had awesome boobs! - I wish I could rock that uniform!)
 We both had a chicken salad and I can say hands down it was my best meal of the trip so far - I LOVED it!
Of course being our first time in Hooters we had to get t-shirts -I love mine and still wear it all the time! I love that the location is on it aswell!

Sorry that this post has seemed to be very photo heavy - although at least they are slightly exciting photos.... well they are in my opinion! I loved LA and I hope one day I will be able to go back!
Keep a look out for the next Travel Diaries post as it's all about the day we went to Hollywood's Universal Studios!

Kirstie's Travel Diaries #6 - JFK to LAX

Catch up with #5 here.

DAY 7 (06/03/12)

Flight #2 was upon us today, it was time to leave the chilly east side and head over to the (hopefully) sunny west side of the US and go to California!!
Yes today was the day we were off to Los Angeles and we were VERY excited. It was alwasys a  dream of both of ours to visit Hollywood, the beaches, the hills and everything else that comes with LA so the fact we were flying to that very place today was baffling! 

Google 

Our flight was at 12pm so we decided that leaving the hotel at 9am was sensible, even if there was traffic we'd still get to JFK in time to check-in and grab something to eat before the 6 hour flight across the whole country.
We hopped in a taxi that was already outside our hotel and made our way towards the airport. In no time at all we were there, lugging our bags and suitcases through departures and heading the the check-in desk! 
We met a few other brits who we had a short chat with, they were from London and on their way to Miami! (Spring break was starting soon)

We checked in all our luggage which luckily wasn't any extra and went to go through security and head to our gate. It was at this point when I looked at both mine and my friends boarding passes and realised we were sitting at different ends of the plane - not.cool.
We ran back to the guy at the desk and begged him to move us next to each other - luckily this was possible and we ended up with the awesome exit seats - hello leg room!!
The flight itself was easy peasy. So comfy with the extra leg room and the flight was actually pretty empty too! I manged to watch part of Harry Potter (DHP2), Horrible Bosses, Friends With Benefits & some of the Glee movie before we landed at LAX. (photos below are from the plane window, us being silly and my friend watching The Smurfs and me watching Harry Potter.... we are so social!)

We were immediately in a good mood as soon as we saw the 'Welcome To Los Angeles' sign and I think I had to pinch myself to fully believe that I was there!

Now.... this is where we had a little teeny bit of trouble! We had realised the night before in NY that we had no transport from the airport to our hotel and knowing that the traffic in LA can be ridiculous we thought a taxi could be quite risky. 
So we found a company online and called up asking if it would be okay if we just showed our confirmation emails on our phones to the driver as we had no way of getting hold of a printer before we arrived, they said yes so we thought that would be enough, we were wrong.
The driver would not accept it and said he MUST have the paper work so we ended up having to pay another $32 between us to get ourselves to the hotel which was very frustrating. (moral of the story, always plan ahead.... we did we everything but this!)
We were the last to be dropped off so we had a little tour around the neighborhood first.
 I don't remember everyone who was in our minibus but I do remember a British couple who got out the stop before us and a couple of American ladies who lived locally and were going home. We talked to them for ages and they were asking us loads about what celebrities we liked and if we were fans of Kate Middleton!

Finally we got to our hotel! The Hollywood Orchid Suites, we had booked this through hotels.com and where it had seemed like a pretty decent place, and it was.
 We had booked our stay in 2 separate parts so for the first 4/5 days we were in one room and for the last part of our stay we were in another.

Google

Our apartment was huge, full-on lounge, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom - was amazing compared to our room in New York (which was tiny!)! 
We thought we'd have a little look around our surrounding area (before it got dark) as we knew we were really close to alot of exciting things. We were behind the Hollywood & Highland centrer and it took us all of 20 seconds to be inside it, through there you come out onto Hollywood Blvd. which is home to the kodak theatre, the Chinese theatre, madame tussdads and of course... the walk of fame! (aswell as soooo much more!)
We had heard Hollywood could be a bit dodgey after dark so after we had spotted the Hollywood sign for the first time we decided to grab some food and drinks for our apartment and get an early night so we could go out and explore everything in the morning!

As we got in the lift upto our floor we noticed a sign of "upcoming events in the area" and there was something going on the next day.... Felicity Huffman (Lynette from Desperate Housewives) was getting her star on the walk of fame along with her husband William H Macy at 11am!!! (We knew wherewe were going the next morning....)

NEXT POST - THE Desperate Housewives, a view of LA, Homes of the stars, Madame Tussauds & more.....

Kirstie's Travel Diaries #2 - A Sightseers Heaven

Catch up with Day's 1 & 2 here.

DAY 3 (02/03/12)

So this was our first morning waking up in America and it was a bloody early one! With our body clocks being 5 hours ahead we were up and wide awake at around 6am (aka 11am!) so up and ready we got and we wrapped up seriously warm because it was actually so much colder than we were expecting!
Luckily we had both worn big thick hoodies from Jack Wills & Hollister for the flight - little did we know they were going to turn out to be life savers on this trip. We knew the first thing we wanted to do was to head to DASH (The Kardashian's Store in Soho) so once again the iPhone was out we had our map telling us which way to head.
After around 30minutes of walking we found it tucked away a few stores down from Chanel on Spring St.. What we hadn't realised is that stores open a bit later in this part of town and DASH didn't open until 11am so instead of waiting around we took a few photos outside and vowed to go back before we left the city so we could have a look round and get some merchandise! 

Next stop was The Statue Of Liberty (yup, today was going to be a sight-seers heaven) so we hailed a taxi, which is always awkward when you first get to NY but I'd like to say we are now experts, and we were on our way. 
Before we headed over and got our tickets we decided that we needed some breakfast, we saw a little supermarket type shop and thought we'd try out luck. Well this had everything - including a cafe area upstairs to go and eat your purchases! I settled for a chocolate chip pancake (hey I was in New York) and it was huge!! This is the first time I thought to myself their portions are huge and it wouldn't be the last!
Breakfast eaten, a little bit warmer and with a few snacks bought we headed over the road and towards the ticket office. 

The queue for The Statue Of Liberty was pretty big but with all sorts of people waiting from all over the world it was quite a good location for people watching. Although saying this this didn't make me feel any warmer and I was so grateful that I had packed my mittens that morning! After about an hour we were in, getting our bags checked and heading towards the boat.
Living on an island I am very used to ferries and this one just felt like I was at home. Growing closer and closer I was getting more and more excited, my friend had been before but this didn't make her any less excited as I. We hopped off the ferry and followed the crowds for a walk around Liberty! This was a perfect spot for photo taking and you'll get to learn from reading these posts that I do tend/love to get a bit snap happy - but I see nothing wrong with this when making memories! You can see the skyline of the city across the water and of course you are up close and personal with The Statue!

We stayed here for probably around half an hour but the wind was so icy cold that we had a quick look around the gift shop, took photos with stupid hat/masks on and walked back to the ferry. Next stop on the ferry was Ellis Island but we decided to skip this as we had lots planned for this day.

We got off the ferry and were greeted with street performers, these awesome guys doing some amazing dancing and gymnastics and had a massive crowd around them. after watching them for a little while we ventured off and went to ask for directions for Ground Zero.
We thought we would have to get a taxi there but after talking to a lovely traffic warden (I think thats what he was anyway) he kindly pointed out to us that "that is the freedom tower right there". We weren't far from it at all so we were off on foot and heading towards the 9/11 site. 
I always knew it was be eerie and even standing in the queue you could just feel that everyone around us felt the same. As we were in New York is was something at the top of our list of things to do and I am so so glad we went. Obviously security, like a lot of the landmarks/tourist attractions, is tight and again we went through the metal detectors and bag searches just like at the Statue of Liberty. 
We went to ground zero just before the museum had opened so it was just the water fall fountains there at this point. 
They are incredible and the size of them just really does make it hit-home how big these buildings were and how many people's lives this affected.
Ground Zero isn't somewhere you hang around for a long time and after a little while we made our way back out and into the store which is situated by the exit.

Now like I said before, this was a major sight-seeing day so yeah you guessed it next stop for us was The Empire State Building.
We got a taxi from Ground Zero and I can't quite remember how long it took but I can't imagine it was long! We were nervous that we were going to have to queue for ages but that wasn't a queue in sight so up we went. 
A fairly expensive ticket and 86 floors in a lift (elevator) later and we were at the top... and getting probably the most wind swept I've ever been in my life. What an AMAZING view. You really get to see the beauty and uniqueness of New York and I could of spent ages up there. But with the cold weather and time ticking on we decided to head back down and make our way back to our hotel.
As easy as that sounds we managed to totally and utterly balls it up. We went to a store and got some food for our room back at the hotel and some well needed bottles of water. As we started making our way back to the hotel location we started to noticed that actually we had no idea where we were going. And... I may, MAY, have made a teeny tiny mistake in thinking our hotel was on 152nd when actually it was on 125th (or something like that) so after walking around 52 blocks more than needed and spending some of our trek in a part of New York I would never want to go back again to we made it back to the hotel. Baring in mind we had been up since around 6, and just carried 24 bottles of water alot further than needed, we were exhausted but our day wasn't over.

When planning this trip we made sure we had tickets for a few things while we were in each state. Tonight we had some of those tickets and they were for Spiderman : Turn Off The Dark the musical on Broadway.
Luckily Broadway was only around a 15 minute or so walk from our hotel and we had seen where the theatre was the night we had arrived and gone to Times Square so we knew where we were going.
Our seats were right at the back of the circle but this didn't matter at all - The musical was amazing. If you are in New York and wondering what show to go and see I would definitely recommended it! Where else are you going to have Spiderman running out of the door right next to you and jumping off of the balcony. So so brilliant, modern and unique with an amazing cast, storyline, soundtrack and set. (I've even got the CD and love singing along).

We left Broadway and it was chucking it down with rain but instead of trying to hail a taxi with the hundreds of other people around we decided just to go for it and walk as fast as we could. And that was our first full day in New York done and dusted.

NEXT POST - Seals, Polar Bears, Central Park & a spot of shopping.....